


Another one bites the dust

by Multifandom_damnation



Series: Too rare to live, too young to die [1]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Billy Hargrove & Maxine "Max" Mayfield Have a Good Relationship, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death Fix, Child Abuse, Developing Friendships, Domestic Violence, Dysfunctional Family, Everybody Lives, Family Secrets, Gen, Hurt Billy Hargrove, Neil Hargrove Being an Asshole, Step-siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-03
Updated: 2019-09-03
Packaged: 2020-10-06 04:14:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20500709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Multifandom_damnation/pseuds/Multifandom_damnation
Summary: What begins as Steve dropping Max off at home turns into him getting talked into meeting her parents and ends with the discovery that Billy isn't just a hard ass piece of shit who hurts anyone and everyone who comes into his path, and that the maybe the bruises on his body and the scowl on his lips comes from someone who should be protecting him instead of hurting him.Who the hell could have predicted that this was how today was going to go?(AKA, Steve is accidentally there in the aftermath of Neil beating Billy and really, it isn't fun for anyone involved)





	Another one bites the dust

**Author's Note:**

> I know that Hopper 'dies' at the end of the last season and that Eleven moves away with the Byers and all that, but Billy also died at the end of season 3 AND YOU DONT SEE THAT STOPPING ME FROM WRITING ABOUT HIM BEING ALIVE so how about you just give me a freebie, ok??? OK?????
> 
> Anyway, I know this makes no sense and is probably totally unrealistic, but I just couldn't get the idea out of my head, so here you go, this piece of crap.

Max sat in Steve’s passenger seat with her bag on her lap, her skateboard in the backseat and her eyes on the road as Steve drove the streets faster than was strictly necessary. “Thanks for taking me home, Steve,”

“No worries,” Steve replied as he zoomed down the road. He had a toothpick between his teeth, something she had really only seen Billy do, and his head half turned out the window. “Why couldn’t your bother come and get you again, though? Not that I care, but you know. A bit odd, now that you two are getting closer.”

It wasn’t really Max’s place to judge, but Billy wouldn’t mind, and if Steve ever let it slip, she would just kill him. “He’s on a date,” she said. Steve’s eyebrows rose. “He hasn’t gotten to go on one since we moved here, and I didn’t want to bother him in case he was still out.”

“Wait,” There was a slight chuckle of disbelief at the end of Steve’s words. “You mean to tell me that hot-shot extraordinaire Billy Hargrove hasn’t managed to get a date?”

“Well, I mean, we’ve been pretty busy,” Max protested. “What, with saving the world and getting possessed and fighting demons and stuff.”

Pausing, Steve seemed to think for a second before he conceded. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” He took one hand off the steering wheel to elbow her in the side. “Well? What’s she like?” he said it almost like he didn’t want to seem interested, but she understood. They all wanted Billy to have some normality after having his body taken hostage by the Mind Flayer.

“I mean, I haven’t actually met her,” Max said. “But I’ve seen her, once. She came to the house and Billy talked with her at the front door, while mum was getting the groceries and Neil was at work. She looks nice. I think he’s going to like her. He looked really happy when she was there, anyway.”

Steve nodded slowly, almost thinking. “That’s good to hear,” he said as he pulled up out front of her house and put the car in park. “Well, here you go. See you later, short stack.”

“Bye,” Max said as she gathered her things and reached for the door handle, but before she opened the door and stepped out into the sun, she paused, and turned back to Steve. “Do you want to come in? Meet my parents? Don’t worry, Billy won’t be home.”

Hesitating, Steve looked like he was about to refuse and Max was about to apologise, but then he turned off the ignition and took off his seatbelt. “Uh- sure.”

Together, they exited the car and walked up the drive towards the house, Steve walking awkwardly behind her as she led the charge towards the front door, and she sent him a smile over her shoulder as she opened the door and pushed her way into the house, calling, “Mum? Neil? I’m home, and I’ve got a friend I’d like you to meet.”

She saw her mother first, banging pots and pans around in the kitchen as she tried to find the right one buried at the bottom of the drawer, and she popped up above the counter when Max spoke. “Hi sweetheart,” she smiled and turned her eyes to Steve, tilting her head to the side. Steve waved at her awkwardly. “And who’s this… older gentleman?”

Max made a face at her mum. “No, this is Steve. He’s the guy who’s been driving me and El everywhere, and he looks after us. He used to go to our school.”

Cringing, Steve tried to elaborate. “I’m uh, what a lot of the other people around here call a babysitter. I try and keep the kids safe and get them out of any trouble they may find themselves in.”

“Yeah,” Max said, pleased that her mother’s features started to relax at hearing the term ‘babysitter’. “It’s not just me he drives around. It’s El and Dustin and Mike and everyone who can fit. He’s really helpful. He’s one of the coolest guys in Hawkins.”

Steve blushed at the compliment and Susan turned a smile to him. “Well, I suppose I should be thanking you for taking such good care of the children. My daughter… she sometimes finds herself in more trouble than she can handle. It’s a gift,” she laughed. “But should I be paying you for your services or…”

“Oh, no,” Steve took his hands out of his pockets to wave them at her. “No way. I’m sort of an… unofficial babysitter? I do it for fun, I guess you could say, although it’s not always fun. Don’t worry. Free of charge”

Susan smiled brighter at Steve and he nodded back, a little unsure of what to do. “I’m glad you’re finally making friends, darling,” she said to Max. “And I’m just so happy that you’ve got some people like him in your corner. This family… it needs more positivity, I think.”

Before Max could retort with something she would probably regret and Steve could try and defuse the building tension with one of his witty jokes, Neil walked in, apparently having heard the conversation, rubbing his hands together. When he caught sight of Steve, he stopped at the entryway to the lounge room. “Who’s this?”

“This is Steve,” Max introduced and Steve reached out to shake Neil’s hand. “I wanted to introduce him because Steve is the guy who-”

She cut herself off because as Neil reached an outstretched arm to shake Steve’s offered hand, she noticed that Neil’s skin was covered in smeared, still drying blood, and his knuckles were bruised and puffy. Steve stopped when she gasped, and looked to her, before glancing back down at Neil’s hand. He dropped his hand to his side.

Her mother seemed to realize what was going to happen before anyone else did. “Max, sweetheart, come on, let’s talk about this, please-”

But Max was hearing none of it. “Billy?” She screamed as she sprinted through the house, Steve hot on her heels and slammed open every door as she searched for him until she got to Billy’s bedroom and flung open that door, where the handle loudly hit the wall and she reached in just far enough to flick on the light switch. _“Billy?”_

The room was in shambles. His make-shift vanity that he had built himself out of things he had found around the neighbourhood was tossed to the ground, the products that were delicately placed on there scattered across the floor. His bookcase was broken, the shelves split, and it’s contents fallen to the floor, his cassettes joining the rubble. The covers on his bed were tossed aside as if kicked away and there was blood on the white sheets. “Max,” Steve said slowly as he looked around the room with wide eyes “What the hell is going on here?"

Ignoring him, Max turned off the light and sprinted down the hall to the bathroom. Susan and Neil paid her no mind, and let her search without any interference. Steve was asking her questions, but she wasn’t listening, and she hammered on the locked bathroom door with an open palm. “Billy?”

She knew what Billy looked like when he went on a date, even though it had only happened a couple of times. He put on his favourite shirt, something other than muscle tees and band merchandise and usually involved buttons. He coated his hair with so much product that if you touched it, it wouldn’t wield under the pressure of your hand. He smelled of multiple different fancy colognes. He had a smile on his face, even if it was a fake one, and it was the only time Max had ever seen him let his guard down and his face lit up and he was nice and polite and kind and acted like an actually decent person.

The man who greeted her at the door was not the Billy she recognised as going on a date. The buttons on his favourite shirt were ripped off the fabric, his hair hanging limp on his shoulders, or rather, limper than it would have been if he had actually gone on a date, and the only thing he stunk of was blood and soap as his face was covered with bruises and blood, and his ruined shirt was stained with it, water and sudds indicating where he had tried and failed to wash it out.

He looked at Max through the small crack he had opened. “What?”

Max felt like she was going to cry. “What happened? What did he do? What happened to your date?”

The heavy rise and fall of Billy’s shoulders in a lame attempt to act like he didn’t care made Max’s heart split in two. “Neil didn’t end up going to work. Samantha came early. He didn’t like that I had made plans behind his back, he kicked her out, I got mad, he kicked my ass. The same shit that happens every other fucking time. Now can you fuck off?”

Instead, Max pulled the door open more and gently reached up to touch his face. He winced. “You look like shit,” she said quietly. “Like, really bad, Billy. Really, really bad.”

“Yeah, well, not all of us can look as pretty as-” He stopped, and Max stopped too, thinking that Neil had finally gotten tired of waiting and followed after her, but she didn’t see his angry reflection in the mirror behind Billy’s head. Instead, she could see past herself to Steve’s shocked face, no longer hidden behind the bathroom door that she had opened wider when she had entered further into the bathroom. Max felt her blood run cold. “Max!” Billy roared, pushing her roughly out of the room and slamming the door in her face, but she didn’t feel any kind of way towards that, because she was already turning towards Steve.

“You need to go,” she said, putting her hands on his chest and shoving him towards the front door. He stumbled backwards, eyes still wide and fixed on the shut bathroom door. “Steve!” she shouted. He looked down at her. “Please, you need to leave, right now.”

Gulping, Steve nodded. “Yeah- yeah, ok.”

Max led him towards the front door with one hand on his back, but thankfully, he was walking on his own volition, as if trying to get to the door as fast as he could. Neil and her mother were leaning over the kitchen counter, talking quietly to themselves, Neil’s hands finally cleaned but no less bruised. “Leaving so soon?” Susan asked sweetly, a little disappointed. “You could always stay for lunch.”

Steve looked like he was going to throw up, and Max mentally pleaded with him not to say something everyone would regret. “Uh, yeah, sorry,” he said instead, and Max was relived. “I’m meeting my friend Robin at the milk bar- I promised her I would drive her around today.”

“Oh, such a shame,” Susan said. “It was nice to meet you though, Steve.”

“Thanks,” he mumbled as he reached for the door handle, “You too.”

Max watched from the window as Steve walked down the path, got into his car and drove away down the street as fast as his tires could take him, and she watched until the sound of his car disappeared before she leapt away from the window and back down the hall to Billy’s room, slamming the door behind her, and waiting for him to finally venture from the safety of the bathroom.

Neil didn’t come after her, which was a blessing, and her mother busied herself in the kitchen instead of trying to console her, so Max stayed in Billy’s bedroom for a whole couple of hours before he came out, trying to tidy up the mess his room had become. Some of his items were ruined beyond compare, but the ones that were merely thrown onto the floor, Max picked up and placed back in their respective places. She was in the middle of trying to re-make Billy’s bed with fresh sheets when he walked in.

They looked at each other for a few moments in silence, a little at a loss for words, before Billy spoke. “What are you doing here?” There was no heat to his words, maybe mild curiosity, but so little emotion that Max was startled.

“I wanted to make sure you were ok,” Max said, a little awkwardly, as she gripped the newly covered pillow to her chest. “Neil looked like he really took it out on you. I just… I didn’t want you to be alone, afterwards.”

Closing the door quietly behind him, Billy finally entered the room and kicked some of the things that Max hadn’t managed to clean up out of the way. “Yeah, well, you made sure of that when you brought Harrington here.”

Max winced. “Sorry,” she said, honestly. “I didn’t think you’d be home, and I wanted him to meet my mum. I uh… didn’t think I’d come home to see… this.”

He still looked like he had been beaten half to hell. His right cheekbone was starting to swell, and his skin was red raw from where he had scrubbed away the blood. He was shirtless, his ruined shirt held loosely between his fingers. “He’s seen it now, so I guess the cats out of the bag, huh?” he tossed his shirt into the corner and pulled the pillow from Max and threw it hard at the wall where It fell back onto the bed. “It’ll only be a matter of time before the whole town knows.”

“No, no,” Max shook her head earnestly. “He didn’t see anything. I kicked him out before he could, and even then, Neil didn’t say anything.”

Billy didn’t look convinced, but he flopped down on the bed beside Max, his hands folded over his chest and his hair spread out over the covers like a halo. He stared up at the ceiling and didn’t say a word. Max looked at him and gently touched his face again. “Does this hurt?”

“No,” Billy said, but Max knew him well enough now to know that it was a lie.

Lightly, Max ran her finger across the bruising on Billy’s puffy face and watched as he tried not to cringe. “Why did he do it?” she asked quietly. “I thought that he’d been leaving you alone lately.”

Shrugging, Billy blew a stray strand of hair out of his face. “He didn’t like that I was getting more action than him. Didn’t like that I had a girl over and that I didn’t tell him that I was going. Or maybe it had something to do with me telling him that he could go fuck himself.”

Max laughed despite herself. “You’re a shit.”

“It’s taken you this long to figure out?” he replied, but it was a humorous retort, not heated like it used to be. He tilted his head to face her. “You remember when I came to get you that night? And I kicked Harrington’s ass?” Max nodded. “I was going on a date that night, too. Different woman, but still. He got pissed because I was getting ready for a date instead of keeping an eye on you.” He looked back up at the ceiling. “He called me a fag for wanting to look nice.”

“I’m really sorry, Billy.”

“Don’t sweat it. I’m over it now.”

After watching him for a moment, Max tentatively broached the subject that had been on her mind for a while. “Did you… like her? Was she the one? This… Samantha?” Slowly, Max laid down on the bed beside Billy and folded her arms over her chest just like him.

Sighing, Billy shrugged again. “I don’t know. She was… I don’t know. I thought she was going to be fun, at least, maybe not the one though. I just… wanted to get out of the fucking house and she gave me a way to do it. I didn’t care where it led. I just wanted it.”

“I can… maybe borrow Dustin’s walky-talky and call her…” Max offered.

Billy laughed. “Thanks, Max, but I don’t think everyone has a radio like you and your friends. Besides, I doubt she’d come back anyway. Probably has more important things to do. We won’t be seeing her back here any time soon.”

They were silent for a while until it got too much for Max and the sadness threatened to overwhelm her. “Do you want to go for a drive?”

He paused. “Yeah. Let’s get the fuck out of this shit hole.”

* * *

The moment he left that house, Steve’s only incentive was to drive and to get as far away from there as humanly possible and he only realized where he was when he saw the familiar grove of trees that surrounded Hopper’s cabin in the woods that he started to slow the car down and release his death grip on the steering wheel.

He was more than relieved when he saw the bright lights from the inside that reassured him that they were home, and he pulled up the drive and turned off the ignition and jumped out of the car faster than he thought was possible, and when he ran up to the front door, he hammered on the wood and waited very impatiently for someone to come and open the door.

It opened on its own, the heavy wood swinging slowly open with the creaking of the old hinges, and Steve shouted, “Hopper, it’s me,” before walking in, realizing that he probably startled them.

As he expected, Hopper was standing off to the side, just beyond the door, with a shotgun gripped tightly in his hand. Eleven was on the other side, a small trickle of blood leaking from her nose to her chin, her hand outstretched. They both lowered their weapons- did El’s hand count as a weapon? He wasn’t sure- as he walked in and slammed the door shut behind him.

“What the hell are you doing here, kid?” Hopper asked, putting his shotgun down against the counter. “You gave us one hell of a fright. We could have killed you.”

“I uh, I’m not sure,” Steve rubbed the back of his neck. “I guess I just really needed to talk to you, is all. _Really_ needed to.”

Hopper gave Steve a very serious look. El stepped in front of Steve and drew his attention to her. “Steve,” she said, twirling slightly in her little pink dress that looked like Max had probably picked it out for her. It was a good fit. “Hi,”

“Hey, kid,” he knelt down and accepted her embrace and ruffled her hair when she pulled away. She made a face at him and frantically tried to fix it. Steve looked to Hopper, who hadn’t taken his eyes away from him since he walked in. He probably looked like shit- wide-eyed and sweaty. “Do you… have you met a guy named Neil Hargrove?”

Something changed in the way Hopper was standing and tension rolled off him in waves. “El,” he said, gently, but still clipped. She knew well enough by now to know that it wasn’t directed at her. “Could you go to your room for a second? I need to have a private talk with Steve.”

Eleven looked up at him. “Three inches?” She asked innocently.

“No,” he replied. “Close it all the way.”

And then she was gone, flouncing away towards her bedroom and disappearing into the darkened space, the door closing behind her as if it had a mind of its own. Steve and Hopper were alone in the lounge, and Hopper spent the time picking up his gun and putting it away while Steve stood awkwardly in the doorway before he turned back to him with his arms crossed tightly over his chest. “What happened?” He said without preamble. “Because I know you, Steve, and I know you wouldn’t come here like this unless it was absolutely necessary.”

Steve took a deep breath. Even thinking about it made him so god damn angry that he subconsciously felt his hands clench at his sides. “I took Max home,” he began. “Everyone else was busy and Billy was supposed to be on a date so I stepped up, and instead of letting me drop her off at the door, she asked me to come in and I-”

“You’re rambling, Steve,” Hopper said and Steve took another, deeper breath. “Slow down.”

With a great amount of effort, Steve forced himself to calm down and continue at a slower pace. “Right, yeah, ok.” Hopper waited patiently. “She wanted me to meet her mum. She seemed nice, it was going well, but Neil was there instead of being at work and…” he gulped. “His hand was just fucking covered in blood.” Hopper stiffened. “And I- I didn’t understand, because I don’t know who this man is and I don’t know what he does for a living, you know? But Max… she started screaming and looking for Billy.”

“I’m not quite sure I want you to finish,” Hopper said quietly as if he knew where Steve was going but didn’t want to believe it, but Steve needed to say it or he was going to explode.

“He was in the bathroom,” He recalled. “And he didn’t see me, I think the door was in the way. But Hopper… he was in a bad way. Like, his face looked like just one big bruise and he was just covered in blood and I was so sick that I thought I was going to die, and Max looked so _upset_ and I just-”

Hopper pushed away from the counter and walked around the room, shaking his head. “I fucking knew it. I knew something like that had to be going on in that house. Nobody acts like the way Billy does because they want to.”

“You don’t understand, Hopper,” Steve leant against the door, his legs suddenly feeling like jelly. “It was like… like they knew. And didn’t care. Like, Max’s mum mentioned something about the household needing more positivity and she seemed to realize that Max was going to go looking for Billy before Max had even seen the blood and she just… she didn’t care. None of them did. Neil looked… smug, I’d say, about it. I just… I don’t know. Max was really upset and Billy just seemed like he didn’t care either, but Max kicked me out when Billy realized I was there.”

Frowning, Hopper turned to Steve. “Why?”

Steve shrugged. “Billy and I really don’t get along. He’s kicked my ass more times than I can count and we’ve almost killed each other more than once. I guess Max and Billy are closer than I thought they were because as soon as he saw me she just… she dragged me out of the house. She told me to leave. I mean, I was going to, but she _really_ needed me to leave, almost desperately. I just… I think I panicked, and I just drove, and now I’m here.”

Almost trembling with anger, Hopper shook out his shoulders. “I think I’m going to kill him. I’m the Chief of Police. Nobody could stop me; I could make it look like a suicide or something.”

Suddenly exhausted, Steve let his head drop back against the door and it made a heavy _thunk!_ that resonated through the wood. “I think it’s safe to say that Billy didn’t get to go on that date.”

Shaking his head, Hopper paced around the room, his footsteps echoing loudly on the floor. “How long has this shit been going on for? It has to be a while, if everyone seemed so fine with it, even Susan. This can’t be a new thing.”

“Billy used to sometimes show up to school covered in cuts and bruises,” Steve said quietly, remembering. “We all used to brush it off as him picking fights with the wrong person. I guess… well. None of us ever considered that he might have been getting them from his dad. Some of them… some of them looked really bad, too.”

“Maybe that’s why the Mind Flayer was able to get to him so easily,” Hopper mused. “Because it knew he was an easy target? Maybe it offered him a better deal, a way out?”

“I’m not sure, but either way, now I certainly can’t blame him,” Steve said, pushing off the door.

Hopper was deep in thought. “I’m going to take care of this. I’m going to… to do something. I’m going to try and fix this.” He looked up at Steve. “Thanks for letting me know. This is… this is something I really needed to hear.”

“No worries,” Steve turned to the door and rested his hand on the handle. “I feel like out of everyone in this godforsaken town, you’re the only one who could do something about it.”

“You should stay here tonight,” Hopper said, but his heart wasn’t in it, too focused on other things. “You’re tired, and it’s late. It’s safer if you spend the night.”

Steve shook his head as he opened the door and slowly exited the cabin. “It’s fine. If I get tired, I’ll sleep in the backseat. It’s not too far of a drive. Tell El I said goodnight.”

He shut the door behind him, cutting off Hopper’s half-hearted retort, and slid back into his car. He gunned the engine and zoomed back down the road, hoping that when he woke up tomorrow morning this would all be a dream and none of this would ever have happened.

But when had he ever been so lucky?

**Author's Note:**

> Also, I know that there's a fanon concept of Billy being gay, which I don't really get because I haven't watched the show yet, but it's an idea that I am all for. Billy is going out on a date with a woman in this, but in my mind, it was a lot more about maintaining his image and wanting something new to do, and dating women are easy as long as you're sexy and charming like Billy. I just wanted to clear that up that no, I'm not trying to erase him being gay (if that really is the case?? I'm not sure but I would love someone to let me know so I can be aware because I would love that), but feel free to interpret this anyway you want. That's why I didn't specify anything in the tags or the fic, but you can take Max's conversation with him about her being 'the one' as them trying to figure it out together. I think in my mind Max would be the only one to know, especially after how close they get once everything gets fixed, so I feel like she's the one most likely to have that conversation with him. Although, here, he could be bi?? Not trying to do the whole gay erasure thing that people seem to love doing on social media, but more like he's still trying to figure out how he feels? I do like the idea of him being gay, though, zo please don't think that I am trying to make a gay character bi. I know this is confusing and I'm probably digging myself a deeper hole BUT STILL
> 
> Anyway, hope you enjoyed it x


End file.
